Discover how a magazine article sparked a 30‑year homeschool journey in South Africa and how the educational landscape has shifted and changed, partly because of it!
About the author:
Shirley Erwee has been homeschooling since dial‑up internet, compact disks and VHS tapes. She’s a mom of six, co‑creator of the beloved Footprints on Our Land curriculum, founder of Go Prep, and a long‑time cheerleader for South African homeschool families. When she’s not writing, teaching or advocating for home education freedom, you’ll find her with a cup of tea, a stack of storybooks and a heart plotting new ways to make homeschooling feel natural, joyful and remarkably successful in a world now captivated with AI, smart devices and invisible technology.
A New Family and a Big Decision
In June 1997, Fair Lady magazine ran an article on homeschooling in South Africa. It featured three local families, including Karin van Oostrum (co‑founder of the Pestalozzi Trust) smiling with her daughters in matching dresses. I didn’t know it then, but that article would be the catalyst that changed the entire course of my life.
Every year, when July rolls around, I pause and marvel at how one moment at a shop checkout set our family on a path that has shaped three decades of learning, growth and purpose.
In May 1997, my husband and I gained custody of his five‑year‑old daughter. We decided to take her out of preschool for a few months before she started Grade 1. She had spent most of her young life in full‑day daycare and we wanted time to bond as a family and give her back a slice of childhood freedom.
During the June/July holidays, I spotted the June issue of Fair Lady with “home schooling” on the cover, alongside the face of actress, Nicole Kidman. At that time, home education had only recently become legal in South Africa, so the idea felt radical and almost unheard of.
The article ended with a link to an American website about homeschooling, which was the departure point for my online homeschooling research. One website linked to another and after a couple of weeks of surfing the net using a dial-up connection, I had found answers to all my questions, worries and doubts:
- How would I cope,
- What about matric?
- What about socialisation?
- What about if I had babies? etc.
My husband and I agreed to try homeschooling for the rest of 1997. It worked beautifully and soon after, I fell pregnant with our first baby.
Creating a South African Homeschool Curriculum
Skip to 2002. I’d been homeschooling for about five years, using American products. I wanted my step‑daughter to learn more about South Africa, so I started creating my own lessons using local books and resources. To save time creating lessons for my younger children, I wrote everything down.
Through an online homeschooling email group, I met Wendy Young. We shared the same vision and together we created a uniquely South African, story-powered, unit study curriculum: Footprints on Our Land.
Since we both had small children, we then created Little Footprints for ages 4-8 and a third programme, Footprints into the 21st Century for young teens. All this was done via emails at night after 7pm when dial-up internet was cheaper!
Voila! We were now homeschool curriculum suppliers. Footprints on Our Land was born. Today Footprints offers a range of ten story-driven home education programmes created specifically for homeschooling in South Africa.
Raising and Homeschooling Six Children
Between 1998 and 2010, I had six children and all of them were homeschooled from the start. During those years, I also created:
- ABC Fun & 1-2-3, a preschool homeschooling guide
- A preschool activities website to support moms with little ones
In 2014 and 2015, I authored the first commercially published books on homeschooling in South Africa (now out of print). I also launched two webinar series to help new homeschool parents.
Thanks to excellent marketing from my publishers, I was interviewed on multiple radio stations, appeared on Afternoon Express on SABC 3 in April 2016 and became a regular voice in media discussions about home education as it grew into a mainstream choice.
Supporting High School Homeschoolers: GED South Africa
In August 2016, after years of recommending the GED as a practical matric alternative for homeschoolers, I was offered the chance to market an online GED prep programme. I launched Go Prep (originally Online GED Prep) to help students prepare for the GED® tests.
Learn about the GED for Homeschoolers.
Protecting Home Education Freedom in South Africa
In 2017, the draft BELA Bill was published. I alerted the home education community, who had not been notified. I became actively involved in Joint Liaison Committee meetings with the Department of Basic Education to advocated for greater home education freedom in the pending legislation.
I also helped found the Liberty in Learning Coalition, where homeschool organisations collaborated to protect educational freedom. The BELA Act was finally promulgated at the end of 2025 and the work to safeguard home education continues.
Seeing our Children Thrive
My five eldest children have each completed their home education. Some now have degrees and work for international companies, some have other industry credentials and one has just launched a new business venture as an entrepreneur. My youngest, now 15, is nearing the end of his homeschooling years, so my time as an active homeschool mom is running out.
It is 29 years since we started this adventure, the start of the 30th year… and although the world and technology have shifted quite dramatically in that time, our children are well-equipped with the knowledge, skills and character traits they need to succeed in the world they are now living in. Through the time-tested Charlotte Mason-style, story-driven education they received, they have developed
- Critical thinking
- Problem‑solving skills
- Integrity
- Insight and emotional intelligence
- A deep understanding of human nature
These are qualities that AI can never replace!
Gratitude for the Journey
I still look back with awe, convinced that God used that Fair Lady article to set everything in motion. I’m deeply grateful to my husband, Riaan, to my Footprints business partner, Wendy Young, and especially to my children, who walked every step of this journey with me.
Having seen the benefits of home education firsthand, I’m passionate about encouraging families, no matter where they are on their homeschooling path and also about protecting the freedom to home educate for future generations.
Continuing the Homeschooling Mission
That’s why through Footprints on our Land and Go Prep, we continue to offer families home education materials that suit the lifestyle of authentic parent-led home education:
- Story‑rich South African homeschool curriculum
- Practical support for high school homeschoolers
- Resources that fit the lifestyle of authentic home education
- Programmes that equip children with timeless skills for the modern world
Homeschooling in South Africa has grown beyond anything I imagined in 1997 and I’m honoured to still be part of this wonderful, life‑changing movement.
